In 3D-TV, 3D-video and 3D-cinema, information of two or even more images is joined together for production of a spatial reproduction of image content. Typically, two stereoscopic images are used for computation of depth information, wherein a matching process is applied to find point correspondences in the two input or basic images. The displacement between two corresponding points in the basic images resulting from the different positions of the cameras when capturing the real world scene is commonly referred to as disparity. A 3D-structure, i.e. the depth information of the captured scene, may be reconstructed from these disparities by triangulation if the camera parameters are known. Depth information for the pixels in the basic images is usually integrated into a disparity map containing the result of the respective matching calculations.
The performance of the stereo matching process inherently depends on the underlying image content. Even for ideal conditions there still remain several problems, e.g. occluded areas in one of the input pictures, perspective deformations due to lens distortions, specular reflections or missing texture in some object etc., that make the matching process a challenging task. For some parts of an image it is inherently more difficult to determine accurate values for the disparity, also referred to as disparity estimates, than for others. This leads to varying levels of accuracy and reliability for the disparity estimates.
For this reason, in addition to the actual disparity value itself the reliability of a disparity estimate represents valuable information. A confidence map reflecting the estimated reliability is preferably provided along with the disparity map, wherein a confidence value is determined for every disparity value. The similarity function employed during the stereo matching may already be seen as a simple form of such a confidence measure. However, confidence values have to be reliable, too. Especially confidence values having an overestimated high level of confidence are risky.